Monster Boy and The Cursed Kingdom Review

Must Buy

Platformer with an open world. Magic, death and adventures that expand platformers.

A vast land of color, danger and adventure. In the distant background an island with even higher mountains behind the skull shaped cave protrudes on your screen. In the forefront, Jin stands in shock on a wooden dock, thinking to himself "Was that Uncle Nabu flying on a barrel?!". Thus, starts our adventure. A couple feet to the right you will see a really spirited, colorful and groovy tiki hut that is your home. You run in grab your sword and reappear with determination on your face. The geography feels like it has a splash of tropical island, palm trees, cliffs, bright green shrubs and the bluest of blue waters behind in the background. The music almost has a classical feel to it with a rush of adventure. I almost feel like it reminds me of Cool Spot and Tomba! I loved those games when I was a kid growing up. Not far ahead you will see a rock platform that allows you to save your game, it is a stone slab shaped like a diamond with a beautiful woman carved into it. Make sure your foot touches base to conclude a save. Continuing on you will run straight into a dragon, defenses up, Jin tells the dragon to stay back! Tears start to flow from the dragon's eyes like water from a spicket. Sorry Jin, it is me, your brother. Zeke! What happened? Zeke begins to tell his brother that their Uncle Nabu had pulled out a wand and transformed everyone in the village. Reassuring himself that he wasn't crazy after all, he puts his feelings aside and runs to the lighthouse to confront his Uncle who seems to be on a wild rampage.

On your first adventure your going to learn a few things. Those few things will come in many forms. First, you will notice right away that there are different types of enemies and these enemies even have different levels of power within that class of species. For instance, the crabs, there are red, blue and green colors. All of the colors have either lower or higher hit points connected to them and you may see a small red crab and a big red crab right after that. The big crab is harder to kill, while the smaller one easier to kill.

Second, gold coins are currency and with those you will be able to buy equipment. One of the first things you acquire by using your gold are a pair of Hefty Boots. Hefty Boots give you the ability to descend into the depths of the waters, which you can then go to other parts of the level that are hiding treasures and other useful things.

In a barrel, you will see a fluffy blue critter wiggling around. Walk up and smash it open. A creature with what appears to look like a round blue hamster with long ears flying in front of you. The creature has pink stubby feet that look something like Kirby's. The name, Pepelogoo! After seeing you in action he offers you a gift, a magic fire truffle. After consuming the cute looking chocolate, you acquire the power of fire. With a hint that there will be more of these magic truffles, you'll be sure to keep an eye out for them.

Secrets and hidden doors are always fun to find. I went into a door that shot me back to a little island inthe distance, like the tiny looking image in the background, I too was tiny. This made it a little difficult tointeract as I normally would. Having an enemy back there with me was a little more intense. Nontheless, I whooped the enemy, grabbed my chest and went back through the door which brought me back to a normal size. That was a real neat experience to have. It threw me off at first, but what doesn't when something is new to you?

The lighthouse

When you finally make it to the lighthouse, you encounter Uncle Nabu flying on a barrel, holding a wand and selfishly drinking the Royal Nectar. Throwing his empty bottle, he made a squid upset, the squid jumps on Uncle Nabu and sticks to his head. Uncle threw the squid and hit it with his wand, making it a giant squid who is now your enemy and your level boss.

The breakdown. There are four tentacles you must watch out for as they will slap you silly. They only move vertical, but the spit produced by the squid are monsters. They move horizontally making you have to move back and forth. Slash the spit creatures with your sword and they will turn into little spit monsters, so it is best to just keep chopping and running. The goal is to cut the squids tentacles while they are slammed down. This will force the tentacle back giving you more room to maneuver. After the first initial successful tentacle withdraw, the squid will start trying to suck you in his mouth while making boulders fall from the sky. Your mission is to make his tentacles move away three times. When you defeat this boss, he will shake and explode shooting gold coins out that you can now collect. This was an intense boss and I had to try a couple times just to beat him. Get as many hearts as you can when defeating enemies, that's the only way to really stay in the game. It'll take about three tentacle withdraws before the boss is officially conquered. I had a lot of fun doing this and this boss right here goes to show that this is not just another push over indie platformer.

The Legend

The end game is trying to figure out what kind of spell your uncle is under and stop him. This has happened before, and the legend speaks of a group of sacred orbs that were used in the past to expel evil and keep the citizens safe. This is where your heroism will shine. You will take on the quest to save the lands. The curse has turned everyone into an animal, including yourself, a pig. Not to worry though,the pig is actually pretty cool and has an eye patch. Lupia Village is the heart of your lands. This is where the king resides along with some pretty cool shops. You can purchase new gear ranging from bracelets that grant you abilities, new weapons and shields, armor and boots to many other things that are useful. The village is like a pit stop. All your shopping needs. This is so cool that you can find this type of enthusiasm in an indie platformer. The jokes, the art and graphics give this game such a cool and humorous vibe.

Truffles

So, we have these sweet things called truffles that I mentioned earlier. Each one, which there are five, will give you magic abilities. The first is fire. Fire is good for burning down vines and hard to reach ropes that are at a distance. The second, boomerang truffle. Boomerang should really speak for itself. If an item is behind a vine that you cannot get past, throw the boomerang, it'll bring it to you. The third truffle, lightning! The lightning truffle is good for shocking enemies out of the sky and the ones crawling on the ceiling, which you cannot normally reach. Truffle number four is tornado. The tornado truffle is great and my favorite. Let this thing go and it will track down your enemies bouncing off the walls and damaging them multiple times. Really good when you're surrounded. The final truffle, the bomb truffle. I mean it's a bomb, blow things up to get into secret spots or just watch an enemy explode.

This and That

There is just so much to this game that it'd take me about three or four thousand words just to describe all of this to you. I mean if you complete one level you move on, right? In most cases that is true for platformers. This is like an open world platformer. You can go back to a level that you might have missed something on or if you just feel like going back, you can. I have never experienced a game like this. Not in this type of genre. So, I can say out of all games I've played, this is one of a kind. To have such freedom to roam back and forth on a platformer, it's brilliant. I'm sure if you are a vet gamer like myself, you'll agree, I'd like to see more games like this. This had some time put into it and I'm not really sure if it's big in the gaming world. If I had the option, I'd promote this game in all channels of gaming. Having said that, let me get back to explaining a little more about the game. So, like I mentioned earlier before, you need to find orbs, when you do, you will find that you can transform into different creatures such as a snake and a pig. There are five all scattered. It'll take some time to get all of these and they come with the price of a boss. By turning into different forms of animals you will also have levels where you need to switch back and forth from animals to complete the level. All forms do something different so when I say that you need to change back and forth, I mean there are obstacles in the way that require different talents.

Gold Boots parts. These parts can be found through the world. When all five are found you can take them to a blacksmith who will then create you the ultimate boots. I really can't type everything out. This game has so many fun hours of gameplay. Collect all weapons and armor, turn into different animals, find secrets etc. You'll have to give this game a go.

My conclusion

Hands down the coolest platformer I have ever played. There is so much detail that went into this game. You can tell that those who put this game together have been playing games for a long time and they have a passion for gaming. I don't say this lightly, this is a must have. I still can't believe all that was packed into this. Very grateful I got to review this.